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A total of 48 rebounds, half of them offensive boards, was the difference on Thursday at the Kohl Center as top-seeded West Salem overcame a near triple-double by Brillion standout Jeremy Lorenz in a 71-61 Division 3 semifinal win in the opening game of the WIAA Boys State Basketball Tournament.

“We did a really good job on the boards,” West Salem coach Mark Wagner said. “Our offensive rebounding was the difference today.”

The Panthers (27-1) led all the way, leading by nine points several times in the first half, including on Carson Koepnick’s three-pointer at the end of the half to give West Salem a 30-21 lead.

That would be as close as Brillion (26-3) get, as the Lions failed to get much offense past Lorenz, who finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds. He added a Division 3-record nine blocks, which is also the division record for the entire tournament.

“Boy, he’s a handful,” said Wagner of Lorenz, whose father, Rich, was a college teammate of Wagner’s at the University of Mary in North Dakota. “We kind of wanted to get him stopped earlier (up court), because he’s so good once he gets to mid-range. He such a good player that you know he’s going to get his, but Brett (McConkey) made him work for everything he got.”

While Mason Behnke added 13 points for Brillion, the inability for the Lions to get much scoring past Lorenz hurt the Lions overall.

“West Salem did a really good job on the perimeter,” Brillion coach Chad Shimek said. “We did not have many open looks. And again, when they put pressure on you, it makes you do things offensively that you’re not used to doing. You move a little bit less, you stand a little bit more, you screen a little bit less.”

West Salem also got 14 points and 14 rebounds, including eight offensive boards, from McConkey and 10 points and 12 rebounds by Peter Lattos.

The Panthers are making their first state tourney appearance although Wagner took Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau to state twice, including the 2012 Division 3 title game, where he lost to Brillion.

Lake Country Lutheran’s experience left little doubt of its intent to appear in its second straight state championship game, as the Lightning used a 22-0 run to dispose of the youthful Cavaliers.

The Lightning (27-2) led 22-19 with 4:26 left in the first half, but then scored the final 12 points of the first half and the initial 10 points in the second, and led by at least 22 the rest of the way.

“There are things we want to do, even with all our different sets,” Lightning coach Mark Newman said. “We wanted to get the ball to the middle and we’ve got a few different ways of doing that. When they couldn’t get us out of that, we were comfortable grinding it out … but then there was that spurt in the first half where we hit a couple shots then hit a couple of threes.”

LCL’s Luke Haertle, a University of Wisconsin walk-on next year, went off for 35 points including 21 in the second half, while also grabbing 11 rebounds. Noah Howard added 17 points for the Lightning, which lost to Racine St. Catherine’s in last year’s Division 3 title game, played in Oshkosh.

“Haertle, Haertle, Haertle,” replied St. Thomas More coach John Hoch when asked what matchups he expected to give the Cavaliers trouble on Thursday. “He’s really something else. (Howard) can really shoot the ball and (Ben Lubbers) is a silent assassin, you know, but (Haertle) you don’t think will be a three-point shooter, but he is and he’s smart.”

Cavaliers standout sophomore Amari McCottry was plagued with foul trouble and finished with 11 points, 12 under his season average. Sekou Konneh, another sophomore who did not play basketball as a freshman, led St. Thomas More with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

The win set the Lightning up for another shot at the school’s first state basketball championship.

“It’s kind of nice to have a day’s break,” Haertle said. “Last year we played back-to-back (in a single day) and it was hard for us because we really got beat up in that first game. St. Croix Central was big and very physical (in the 2021 semifinal), so I think this day’s break will allow us to get back to being ourselves.”

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